Every Angle
by Lutralutra
Summary: She is between them, beside them, behind them, in front of them, and she sees all their sides. Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto.


It's Team 7, Sakura's POV. Mostly just a friendship thing, but you can make it NaruSaku if you squint. I'm thinking I should make this into the beginning of a drabble collection, since I should probably stop posting random under-1000 word entries and calling them oneshots... so don't be surprised if this fic gets an update, although it most likely won't be the same theme or characters. Keep an eye out, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope, no Naruto, move on, people, nothing to see here.

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Every Angle

You think Naruto is easier on the eyes than Sasuke.

Sasuke is dark, shadowed, gorgeous, and he makes and always made you gasp. Naruto is bright, shiny, original, and he makes and will always make you smile.

They are both damaged, and it matters to you. It matters to you that Sasuke's eyes are never anything but black when they're not red, and it matters to you that Naruto's tears are hot and fat when they come. It matters because they are your boys, your friends, your comrades. Because, in some way, they are yours.

But, in most ways, they can never be yours. They are far from you in many areas, and you have to respect that, even when it makes you cry. Even when it makes _them _ cry, which is so much harder. Sasuke is light-years away from you in mind - he is a genius, and entitled to leaps which normal ninja, even those who are smart (and you still pride yourself on that, in spite of everything), can never hope to make.

Then again, you are not a normal ninja, and that is all thanks to them.

But if there are solar systems between your mind and Sasuke's, then there are universes between your heart and his. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, but you don't dare to hope. He is impossibly advanced, able to survive by cutting himself off from you and Naruto. If it was you in his place, you would die. If it was you in that place of revenge instead of him, you would die happily knowing that you were saving him. That is the only thing that holds your hearts together still.

Naruto is forever different.

In mind Naruto is just as distanced from you as Sasuke is; the two of them are united by a past that is full of hurt, anger, pain (the _real _ kind, not the kind that comes from being made fun of for a big forehead), and a present that is not, if you think about it, all that much better, and you are totally and unquestionably left out. But Naruto doesn't think about it, and he never will. That is why his heart is very close, only separated from you by a bright orange jumpsuit when he puts his arms around you. You used to wish Sasuke would do that, but now that you have felt Naruto's warmth and heartbeat, you don't need the wishing so much anymore.

You know real pain now. You have cried for Sasuke until all his cold glares froze the tears on your face, you have cried for Naruto until his tender blue eyes melted all your sorrow into a heavy lump. They are the reason you understand pain even a little, because they are every extreme that has ever existed in your life. How many times have they broken you, how many times have they carefully pieced you back together, how many times have they misunderstood you, how many times have they come running to your smile, to your wave, to your dreamy gaze? You remember every single one, but you can't count them. Neither can they.

From the front, Sasuke is achingly beautiful, not handsome because handsome is something you can use to describe any boy, but _beautiful, _ really beautiful. You were in love with him, him and his pale skin and deep eyes and sleek hair. But now you have been around the back, and at each side of him; and you can't look at him the same way from any direction now. You've seen his back as he walked away from you, you've seen the shadow falling across his face from the right, from the left, from the front too now that you know it's there. But he is really beautiful.

From the front, Naruto is...Naruto. The blond spikes, the big blue eyes, the baby cheeks, the dumb grin, the whisker marks that you don't wonder about anymore. He is very much the same as he was when they announced his name beside yours for Team 7, and yet he isn't - you know the change is partly him, but mostly you. He can't ever change too much, because then you will lose him; but you, you are free to change with the sun, the seasons, the wind, and you do. You change, you see, then you understand. From the back, Naruto is strong, broad-shouldered, defiant - he is in front of you, protecting you. From the left, just as from the right, he is tall, steady, fast - he is beside you, protecting you.

From the front, Naruto is the same as he is at every angle.

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_You see more than you get. You get more than you see. No balance, but happiness is in the middle somewhere. _


End file.
